Jutaku


Jutaku or kyosho jutaku (Japanese: 狭小住宅] is a Japanese architectural style focused on delivering original, "micro-home" designs on very small sites.

History

The Jutaku phenomenon rose in the 1990s as Japan's real estate sites grew increasingly smaller, both from the Japanese inheritance system and the island's growing population. According to the architect Kengo Kuma, the first traces of Jutaku appear in the writings of the poet Kamo no Chōmei and the description of his own small house.
The development of smaller, capsule homes was influenced also by Japan's capsule hotel trend, launched in 1974 with the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

Description

Jutaku simply means "house" in Japanese. Jutaku houses and buildings focus on minimalist, multi-functional spaces to make up for their small sites. Jutaku houses often do not blend with their urban context, making the architectural style a good fit for individualist-oriented cultures. Jutaku houses and buildings often feature contorted geometries and daring structural engineering, or awkward site configurations.
According to the Japanese architect Yasuhiro Yamashita, a Jutaku house is awkward, built towards the sky, nature-sensitive, personalized, monochrome, built with reflective materials and hidden storage areas.

Examples